in Grecian antiquity, a festival celebrated by the Athenian husbandmen in honour of Bacchus, to whom they sacrifice a he goat, because it destroys the vines (Ovid Fasti, i. 357); and, to show the greater indignity to an animal hated by Bacchus, the peasants, after having killed him, made a foot-ball of his skin. Virgil has beautifully described the occasion of the sacrifice, and manner of celebrating the festival, Georg. ii. 380.